Surface Pro ships with only 23KB free or less than a single floppy!

[SysAdmin]

They should include a black floppy with it to double the storage!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2270626/Microsofts-64GB-Surface-Pro-tablet-ship-TWO-THIRDS-storage-space-used-up.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Bloatware to the extreme. That's what you get if you buy the most expensive tablet computer in the world.

[commodorejohn]

23KB < 23MB < 23GB.

Not that it matters, anyway. Haven't you been listening to the tablet advocates? The future of computing is passive, bovine content consumption, streamed direct from The Cloud! You don't need storage for that!

[bloodline]

23KB < 23MB < 23GB.

Not that it matters, anyway. Haven't you been listening to the tablet advocates? The future of computing is passive, bovine content consumption, streamed direct from The Cloud! You don't need storage for that!

Actually, I use my iPad Mini for software dev (C/Objective-C and JavaScript), and also for making music... The DAW software available is brilliant now!

Back on topic... The amusing prefix mixup aside, the Surface is horribly under provided in the Storage department :-/

[Kesa]

Nonsense. You don't need that much data space. For me 8 Gb would last a life time!

Tell me. What happens when you use up all that data and something happens to it like it gets stolen or run over by a bus? What a waste. That's the problem with these mobile devices. People put all their information on them without backing it all up. Why can't you just use computers like a normal person?

[cunnpole]

Nonsense. You don't need that much data space. For me 8 Gb would last a life time!

Some of us do back them up and don't have useful portable internet and like to tinker on the go. The 15" laptop is a bit bulky to carry everywhere (unlike the tf101 which is always nearby)

[Kesa]

But isn't the ipad almost impossible to transfer data? It's not like you can just plug in a storage device using usb. At least as far as i know. I don't use Apple stuff.

[cunnpole]

But isn't the ipad almost impossible to transfer data? It's not like you can just plug in a storage device using usb. At least as far as i know. I don't use Apple stuff.

It's not simple by my parents standard (unless were talking about itunes media), but using it as a usb drive on a pc is easy for more technical folks. Also dropbox (resync when you get home) and like make it easy to transfer stuff. I prefer android devices as most have host usb slots allowing connection of everything from 3TB usb drives to 3g dongles.

[gertsy]

They should include a black floppy with it to double the storage!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2270626/Microsofts-64GB-Surface-Pro-tablet-ship-TWO-THIRDS-storage-space-used-up.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Bloatware to the extreme. That's what you get if you buy the most expensive tablet computer in the world.

As pointed out a slight error to the millionth degree there.  26 Thousand floppies if you're interested.
But the article may as well have said that for all the possible truths in it. There are only a few technology writers I pay attention to in the media.  None of them mainstream.

As to the device some of the follow-up replies are close to the mark.  You don't buy a device like that to store your media files on.  Its a consuming/presentation device.  You stream to it.  As to the cloud streaming Full Hi Def content isn't really a viable option for most WiFi connections out in the wild. In the home yes.  3G and 4G Hi Def streaming is a joke as well.

The challenge for the Pro will be a result of its perceived benefit.  Being x86 people will want to run their normal desktop software on it which do suffer from bloat.  
But 23 GB is heaps of space for download Apps which are usually below the 50Mb mark in size.

When it all comes to it I'm sure there will be USB3 docks that offer 400GB/Sec throughput to storage, network and video.  The trend now for docking stations.

And the Windoz x86 software base is moderately sized..  (;

Believe it or not you can actually plug in a $20 16GB USB3 stick into it and a folder of content opens before your eyes.  Simple.

[bloodline]

Nonsense. You don't need that much data space. For me 8 Gb would last a life time!

Tell me. What happens when you use up all that data and something happens to it like it gets stolen or run over by a bus? What a waste. That's the problem with these mobile devices. People put all their information on them without backing it all up. Why can't you just use computers like a normal person?

iOS devices automatically backup to the Apple iTunes cloud server (or your computer if you don't trust Apple). If I were to lose my iPhone or iPad today, I could go into an apple store get a new one, type in my Apple ID (or plug into my laptop), and the device will be restored to the same state it was in at 1am this morning. In fact I've use this feature several times when upgrading my iPhone

[cunnpole]

iOS devices automatically backup to the Apple iTunes cloud server

I hope you make your own backups too considering how many of these cloud companies (apple and dropbox included) have lost their users data. They give very little in the way of guarantees, even to their paid customers.

[bloodline]

I hope you make your own backups too considering how many of these cloud companies (apple and dropbox included) have lost their users data. They give very little in the way of guarantees, even to their paid customers.

Yeah, I use the Apple cloud for my automatic daily backup and my own laptop for a weekly backup.

[ChuckT]

Nonsense. You don't need that much data space. For me 8 Gb would last a life time!

Tell me. What happens when you use up all that data and something happens to it like it gets stolen or run over by a bus? What a waste. That's the problem with these mobile devices. People put all their information on them without backing it all up. Why can't you just use computers like a normal person?

The files are backed up on the cloud (internet storage) and if my tablet gets run over by a bus, I can buy a new one and import my files wirelessly.  The Kindle has something like 6 or 8 Gigabytes and most of those gigabytes are free but you pay if you go over so it is important to keep track and delete non-essential things.

I have almost 4 gigabytes of music.  I bought a Kindle because I ran out of book space at home as I have sixty feet of books.

I have writings on different subjects so that takes up megabytes.

A tablet is your personal computer in some sense.  I backed up the essential files of our computer on a 64 GB flash drive and that wasn't enough room but it was enough for family photos.  Backing up family memories on a 64 gigabyte flash drive gave me peace of mind because you can't replace your pictures if they are lost or damaged.  If your hard drive goes down, you lose everything so cloud storage is helpful and hard copies are helpful as you should always, always, always learn to back up your important files.

Family videos take up a lot of room.

I went on vacation and I couldn't access my files stored on the cloud when the internet was periodically out.  A tablet is good for vacation because you can access free internet and browse Amiga dot org while you are away from home unless you want to be alone.

[Duce]

My 64 GB iPad is full to the brim - it doesn't take long.  My music collection alone is about 30 GB.  I will likely buy the 128 GB version of the iPad in due time, as this old iPad 2 is in need of a refresh anyways.

That being said, the reactionary press about the Surface Pro is a bit silly.  You *can* ditch the recovery partition to free up a lot of space, but that doesn't change the fact it is running full (non RT) Windows 8, which takes up a lot of space.  The 64 GB versions of the Surface Pro shouldn't even exist, IMO.  Even the 128 GB versions would be far too small for me for a tablet running a full fledged OS.

But hey, at least with these Surface Pro devices, you have expansion options.  They have USB ports and memory card slots that will take cheap storage options, whether it be a 64 GB SD card, a 256 GB USB Flash drive, or something like a plain old USB external hard disk.

You don't have that option at all with the Apple products.  A lot of people have bought 16 GB iPad models, only to find out that a few major game titles can fill that up quite rapidly, leaving you with no expansion options.

For example, one of my favorite iPad timesinks is Need for Speed: Most Wanted - which takes up near 2 GB of space on the iPad.

[yssing]

"Windows 8 alone takes up 20GB of space, but the OS claims even more of the Surface's solid-state hard drive for a 'recovery partition' to back up users' data right there on their tablets."

Wait what??

[tone007]

Hoping this post was an Onion-style joke, though the article linked is quite a load.

My experience: purchased a Dell Windows 7 tablet from them for $199 the week before Christmas, 2GB of RAM and a 32GB SSD.  Upgraded it to Windows 8 for $15, installed Office 2010, VMware management tools and the "free" Adobe CS2 that came out a couple weeks ago, still have 7GB free and I didn't even blow away the restore partition yet. I've made it my only desktop computer at work by adding a $40 dock from eBay and a 20" LCD.  Today, I pulled it off of the dock and I'm currently sitting at a bar typing this message on it.

I don't know what I'd do with an additional 32GB of storage on it, as it's currently doing everything I need, though there is a nice SD card slot if I need a bunch of static data along with me.